St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-03
BLACK HILLS CULTURE.

ing Camps---DeadwoOd Citizens
Who Enjoy the Refinements of
Life.
Special to the Globe.
DEADwooD, Dec. BLACK Hills COM
munities begin to revolt againt being
reported as mining camps exclusively
particularly against that picture of
mining camps which was formed upon
the rude and irregular conditions of
early DAYS, when the hills were infested
with Indians, road agents, mining SharpS
and gamblers, and the Sioux squaw was
the highest type of female society to be
found. Although that state of things
was of short duration. and long since
passed away, the impressions produced
by the variations of that time have per-
sisted with a tenacity such as does not
belong to more truthful and ereditable
stories, it is sad to say. Part of this
survival of the unfttest regarding the
Black Hills may be attributed to the
penchant that sensational newspaper
writer's may have for selectingDeadwoOd
as the scene of any adventure that they
want to give ''lOcal habitation and a
name" The adage. ''Give dog bad
name" ETC., applies to communities as
MGll DIS VIC St1O lOICCo W
furnish the scene of hnn-
dreds of grewsOme and morbid
imaginationS that areas foreign to our
present condition of society as they
would be to the avenues of Chicago, sim
PIX because in ancient times something
in that order marked our development;
but nothing as dark and dirty as Is
every day fastened upon our skirts.
Part of this unenviabie fame, too. is
due to the reports that transient visit
OrS. and especially young and magma
tive travelling men. carry out from the
hills. And it must be reluctantly adj
mitted that the local press does not
seem to have yet wakened to the i'm
portance of giving prominence to the
better features of our place-itS social
amen. ties, its musical, literary and art
culture. its religious and reform inter
ests. Your reporter has been impOr-
tuned to try to present to the outside
world something other than the bust
ness and political aspects of DeadwOOd;
to show the side of its life that the spec
ulative and peddling transient never
sees: to indicate that our people are as
well advanced
IN THE REFINEMENTS OF LIFE
as in business and mining develop
mentS: that there is culture here as adj
Vanced and marked as the enterprise of
the place. So these presents are in
tended to give DeadwGod a cultural
boom. If there is no money in this
bOOm-SaYe the modest hOnOrarium of
the reporter and the incidental acceS-
sion to the popularity and patronage of
the GLOBE hereaway-it must be con-
fesSed that the Black Hills have ma
terial interest in the recOg ton of the
advantages of their land as place of
residence for people of intelligence and
refinement.
1t will require only recapitulatlOn of
some of the salient musical and literary
features of DeadWOod life to convince
the outside reader that she is as adj
yanced in these respects as any Eastern
community of equal Size: more progress
sive than any of the same age that can
be readily cited. Take the literary life
of the place first: In this work the la
dies of DeadWood are entitled to prior
mention. as well on account of the court
eSy due the sex as of the fact that they
lead the other sex in this direction.
The most notable literary organiZa-
ton of the city is composed exclusively
of ladies, and it even adheres rigidly to
the platform of SOrosis in its meetings
Principles, not men," This organi-
cation is called 1.-The Round Table
club" 1t was organized by Mrs. John
A. CASTOR, wife of the veteran stock
broker: Mrs. Morse. wife of John
Morse, jeweler; Mrs. W. H. Fox: Mrs.
COe, wife of A. W. Coe. head salesman
of J. z. X. Miller the wholesale grocer,
and their daughter. Miss Clara COe.
The membership now includes, besides
these: Mesdames W. Ii, Jones,
Joseph King. Edwin Van Cise,
Judge George c. Moody, Hon.
John r. Wilson. c. A. Spaulding. Mrs.
Y0unglOve. wife of the cashier of the
Deadwood National bank: the wife of
Charles Mckibben. of the United States
land office, and Miss Hattie Spaulding.
Mrs. Castor is president and Miss COe
secretary. The degree of interest can
be inferred when it is known that the
club has never skipped weekly meet
ing since its organization. The proceed
ings are upon high plane of effort.
Their studies thus far have been con-
fined to American authors. Four weeks
of close critical study were given to
Emerson. Members were selected to
prepare critical essays on indeXical
works of the great tranScendentalist;
Mrs. Morse thus had a review of his
Method in Nature;;" Miss COe, his
art" Mrs. King. Mature, Comedy
and Beauty" Mrs. Spaulding, 'Charac-
ter; Mrs. Castor, ''TranScendentaliSm;
Mrs. Van Cuse, Literary Ethics" IRE
membered by the members as eXcep-
tIonally good; Mrs. Fox, Friendship"
and Miss Spau: ding, on Experience"
The club, in the study of Hawthorne,
spent two months upon marble Faunr
alone. in which review their collateral
readings took in a wide range of Italian
and Roman life. history and art. [
imagine their fair sisters in hundreds
of old cities would eXclaim, ''Oh, myr'
at this advertisement of the ladies of this
frontier town in the Black Hills. The
meetings of the Round Table club
open with selections of poetry and close
with favorite quotations by all the men,
bers. Every fifth meeting is social
unbending, but even here the rule of
''No GENTLEMEN ALLOWED"
is rigidly enforced. The membership
is restricted, and the regimen of study
and high class work here indicated is
kept to closely. 1t is in order to avOw
that neither the aesthetic nor the Brown
ing craze has yet penetrated this mystic
circle, and that these earnest ladies
are among the most attractive at their
firesideS and prominent in social recOg-
milton i'll DeadwOOd.
Another literary organization is the
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific
circle. Hon. E. w. Martin is president,
E. X. DePuy secretary. The circle
adopts the excellent plan of having in
Structors in topics. Thus Mr.. Fair
banks is instructor in history, Mrs.
Spaulding in physiology and Miss Neil
in literature. The circle numbers thirty,
and its programme takes a wide range
threading, eSSaYng and study germane
to the prescribed course in the Chautau-
qua. The Chautauqua circle can boast
of quite galaxy of students. Besides
Mr.. and Mrs. DODson, below referred to,
there are the lawyer president, Mr.. Mar
tin. and his wife. Mrs. Martin is a
graduate of Cornell college. and a lady
of thorough culture. Mr.. and Mrs. Still
well are couple of similar type. Mr..
StilIwell is a good amatuer geolo-
-. n - .oiI..4... NJ. H..